Jenkintown falls to New Hope in BAL opener
Playing hard and playing with heart are two ingredients necessary to winning a football game.
Unfortunately for Jenkintown aspects such as scoring points and not making critical turnovers more requisite parts to winning a game as the Drakes lost a hard fought game to New Hope 29-7 to open Bicentennial Athletic League play Friday night.
“I think we played really hard,” Jenkintown coach Tony Owens said. “They were undefeated. They’re a school with 300 boys, no excuses we’re less than 100 boys, and these kids played really hard and really tough.”
Owens knew going into the contest that the Drakes would likely have a tough time throwing the ball because it was hard to combat the talent and size of the undefeated New Hope defensive front led by defensive tackle Matt Fest.
With the passing game on the back burner Jenkintown went to the ground attack with Steve Charlemagne.
Charlemagne did it all Friday night. He played offense. He played defense. He got the crowd pumped up. Charlemagne racked up 154 yards on 17 carries on the ground including the Drakes only score when he bolted up the gut, as he did all night, for a 59-yard score.
“I think I just ran angry,” the junior running back said. “One thing about me is I hate being underestimated and I know they came into this game underestimating myself and my team.”
Though the Jenkintown offense was mostly bottled up for much of the night the real problem for the Drakes stemmed from penalties and turnovers,
The miscues started early for Jenkintown as quarterback Andres Madden was sacked in the end zone for safety for the first score of the game. The sack was set up by a holding penalty that pushed the Drakes back from the 21 to the eight-yard line.
On its next possession the Drakes fumbled a punt setting the New Hope offense up with good field position as Lions quarterback Nick Garrintano hooked up with Alec Coburn for a 33-yard touchdown giving the Lions a 9-0 heading into halftime.
“I don’t want to blame it on penalties because I think that’s a childish thing to do,” Charlemagne said. “They won the game plan and simple. We played our hearts out for sure but they ended up on top and it is what it is.”
Although the loss was disappointing for Jenkintown it was able to send a message that it’s not a team that’s going to get pushed around in the Bicen conference.
“We’re always taken lightly and think we proved tonight people got to look out for us because we’re here to play, we’re going to give you everything we got and we’re going to smack you in the mouth.”
